The Magic of Ascanio offers you, in four volumes, the complete work of the Maestro who changed the direction of magic in Spain and influenced many successful performers. Learn all about the legacy of a true master of our art: his ground-breaking theories, his legendary card routines and sleights, and his magic with pocket knives.

Studies of Card Magic

This second volume, with forewords by Roberto Giobbi and Aurelio Paviato, contains an exhaustive study of the Ascanio Spread and its variants, and all the lay-downs. These sleights, the cornerstones of Ascanio’s magic, have never been explained so thoroughly before. Careful study of this section alone will give you a complete understanding of these marvelous sleights.

Get ready for the pleasant journey of studying the early versions of Ascanio’s classics. Oil and Water using the Ascanio Spread (a three-phase routine) and Father Ace and Sons (versions 66 and 67) will take you into the wonderful world of Ascanio's routining. See the theory in action, with examples of concepts explained in the first volume, such as the Parenthesis of Forgetfulness, the Anti-Contrasting Parenthesis, Stressing the Initial Situation, Slow Execution, misdirection, and the In-Transit Actions.

The next three chapters include magic by Ascanio's mentors, Kaps and Carles, by his colleagues Dany Ray and Fu Manchu, and by one of his idols in magic: Ed Marlo, all with the Ascanio treatment. This section contains tricks shown to Ascanio by these great masters.

Chapter Seven includes Ascanio’s favorite routines: If You Don’t Pay Attention…, Aunt Enriqueta’s Aces, The Trick I Would Show Dai Vernon, Sleightless Oil and Water (or so it seems), and Aces with Love.

In Chapter Eight two other Ascanio favorites are described: The Wriggling Aces and Don’t Blink! Revisited. The Trick I Would Show Dai Vernon is a lesson on Conditioned Naturalness, and The Wriggling Aces was part of his winning act at FISM in Amsterdam 1970.

Chapter Nine includes two Ascanian classics: A Baroque Transposition and The Mechanical Strength of Thought.

Chapter Ten finally brings you some of Ascanio's minor masterpieces such as: Dolores’s Trick, The Pathology of Cards, X - 1 = 0, Triumph, Eight-Card Oil and Water, The Nine Facts, Antagonistic Aces, and A Hunger for Dreaming.

Pages 320 and 390 illustrations.